Business Strategy

Strategic Business Development

We approach business development with a practitioner’s eye. Strategic success is fundamentally defined as what delivers performance objectives within a wider market and socio-economic environment and within a specific timeframe. Our objective is therefore results, not theory, and our results must be part of a replicable process in order to be successful.

Our strategy projects are rarely stand-alone exercises, but usually take place within the framework of a wide, multi-functional project such as organisational development or investment management.

A generic strategic development process includes the following components:

Assessing markets and competitive positioning

Assessing core and non-core business activities

Reviewing of financial position and resources

Modelling fundamental productivity and business efficiency

Defining business objectives

Implementing and monitoring strategic initiatives

Three factors are taken into account in designing change initiatives:

1. Understanding and Diagnosing the Business Environment

We deploy strategic analysis, competitive analysis and scenario planning tools to understand the strategic environment and its sectoral/segment developments. This includes measurable indicators, such as market share, sales and profits, manufacturing lead time, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, barrier to entry, and other measures.

These tools are often deployed in joint teams of consultants and corporate stakeholders. In doing so, we ensure better communication and a common understanding between the external consultant team and the company, and leave behind methodologies, processes and experience which can be re-used once the consultancy assignment has ended.

2. Designing and Preparing Change Initiatives

Our experience has shown that the intermediary stage of designing and preparing strategic change initiatives dramatically influences the outcomes of a strategic development process. We invest time and resources in the preparatory phase, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of the inputs, outputs, drivers and barriers to a change programme.

The use of interactive models, project management systems and key performance indicators help us define and understand the progress of strategic change.

3. Developing Competencies for Change

Strategic development is a long-term process, often requiring iterative steps in order to reinforce the change process and consolidate gains. In implementing strategic change, we focus as much on process design as on the “human factor.” Process-driven change, such as organisational restructuring or business function development, will often only be as good as the people behind it. Our goal is to ensure that change is sustainable and effective, not a report to be left in a drawer.

We support the long-term strategic monitoring and management of our clients through consultancy frameworks as well as board-level participation or retainer contracts. We use the Balanced Scorecard together with customised key performance indicators.